Jobs agenda upside down

Govt turns blind eye to labour imports while failing to create 1 million jobs

Low-skilled jobs go to foreigners as authorities look away

Government’s job creation surveys carried out between 2020 and 2022 show that the Tonse Alliance administration has failed to create the one million jobs it promised during the campaign.

Yet, the same government is turning a blind eye to firms importing labour even for basic tasks that locals can do to graduate out of poverty and reduce the country’s levels of unemployment in the medium-to-long term, Weekend Nation has established.

Through systematic observation at several organisations—including shops, poultry and manufacturing firms, international high schools and reviews of various employees’ backgrounds—we established that foreigners are edging locals out of the job market despite Malawi’s policy prohibiting importation of skills that are locally available.

Our investigations were done in Blantyre, Zomba, Mangochi, Lilongwe, Salima, Kasungu and Mzuzu.

Ministry of Labour, which is mandated to look into labour and employment issues, had its spokesperson Nellie Kapatuka pushing us to the Ministry of Homeland Security “as holder of the policy statement and lead agency in the assessment of temporary employment permit [TEP] applications”.

But, for a month,  the Homeland Security Ministry could not provide us the criterion for issuing TEPs to foreigners working as teachers, security guards, waiters and shop attendants, when such skills are readily available in the country.

Our request for information—filed in accordance with the Access to Information Act—to the Ministry of Homeland Security on June 22 2023 has yielded nothing despite several reminders.

Later, Homeland Security information officer Patricia Gondwe said they were waiting for the Department of Immigration to furnish them with responses.

In a written response, Department of Immigration spokesperson Wellington Chiponde provided broad policy stipulations, not responses to our findings.

He insisted that his department follows the legal and policy framework in issuing TEPs.

Chiponde said the issuance of permits involves various stakeholders, including Ministry of Labour, which recommends to the minister of Homeland Security whether a permit should be approved or not.

Where the firms have hired foreigners without TEPs—as the department acknowledges on its website that it happens regularly—the department has also been silent on why such companies and their illegal workers are not penalised, let alone, allowed to hire them.

Yet, the likes of 29-year-old Emmanuel Maseko—who holds a Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) and survives on piecework, locally known as magobo, at Limbe Market—wants answers to why foreigners must take jobs locals can easily fit in.

“We struggle to survive because we cannot find a proper job that gives us a stable and reliable income. For lack of [tertiary] qualifications, we do not really desire white-collar jobs, but we can work as shopkeepers, or guards…but even these jobs are given to foreigners here in Limbe.

“[Just go to shops owned by Indians or Chinese—they prefer their own people as shopkeepers. We have no means to go and work in other countries like they do. Why is our government not protecting us?” wondered Maseko amid cheers from his magobo mates.

Our findings also come three years after President Lazarus Chakwera decried in his first State of the Nation the hiring of foreign workers at the expense of Malawians.

Said Chakwera: “It pains me to say this, but I must: One of the things depleting jobs for our people is the influx of expatriates who have no unique expertise.”

The Department of Immigration has, in its publications, acknowledged the presence of foreigners working without necessary documents, contrary to the dictates of the law and policy.

“The Malawi Government has noted with regret the illegal practice by some organisations that engage expatriates before approval of their Temporary Employment Permits. Government is reminding all organisations that it is a criminal offence under the Immigration Act to work or be employed without a Temporary Employment Permit,” reads the statement on the agency’s website.

Employers willing to recruit foreigners who must be granted TEPs, according to Malawi’s immigration laws and policy, are required to demonstrate that there is, indeed, shortage of those particular skills. 

But even where there is shortage, the expatriate must be understudied to allow for transfer of skills, according to the country’s policy statement on employment of expatriates and employment permit guide. 

An application for TEP, according to the Immigration Act, should show that the post was advertised locally and that it was not possible to identify a suitably-qualified person locally.

“TEP applications should include details of a qualified Malawian who will understudy the expatriate and will eventually take over the post,” further reads a statement on the department’s website posted early this year.

The policy states that this applies to all investors, whether local or foreign, new or existing and is premised on the fact that an “expatriate personnel should not replace locals, but supplement them”.

Foreigners pick up jobs

We observed foreigners working as shop attendants in some Indian and Chinese shops at Bwalo La Njobvu in Lilongwe and Limbe in Blantyre.

At a popular restaurant chain, we saw foreigners working as waiters, chefs and restaurant supervisors.

But in a written response, one of the directors of the firm justified the presence of foreigners as necessary to enforce their standards.

He said: “The reason for this is that a lot of our expatriates come to train our locals. Remember [this restaurant chain] employs Malawians who don’t really have qualifications. We believe everyone is talented. We do this so that all employees even if they left us and go elsewhere they are fully-trained, within a year a person who works as a cleaner can easily be a waiter or chef through the assistance of the expatriates.

“The expatriates also assist in a number of ways such as training on how to follow SOPs (standard operating procedures)”.  

At a poultry firm in Lilongwe, we captured foreigners working as security guards and sales representatives. When we approached company officials, they refused to talk to Weekend Nation.

Sources at the company estimate that there are at least 30 foreign workers. n

Get your copy of Nation on Sunday tomorrow for more details about how Malawi’s jobs are being taken away by foreigners and what experts say on what needs to be done.